Page 1 of 1

White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic etc)

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:28 pm
by bjorn.syse
Hi!

I've scanned through a few threads, and this issue seems to be a long hauler. What is the current best practice when trying to render a white translucent plastic in the situation of lit lamp shade?

In my case, this will be close up renders of a new lamp design, so it's not just som lamp in the back of a bigger scene. This will be the center of attention in the composition.

Here are some examples of what I would like to reproduce: (i know their two different plastics and a glass, but it's the principle I'm after)

Image
Image

[1] Is volume SSS with an emitter behind even an option, or will it kill my Macbook pro? If it is an option, how can I optimize it?
[2] Single sided SSS?

What are your experiences here?

Cheers,

- Björn

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:39 am
by Bubbaloo
If it's the subject of the render, I would try to do it with thinsss.

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:40 am
by bjorn.syse
Ok,. will a thin SSS approach be quicker in any way, or will it just save me the modeling? I allready have the modeling done, and it's a 4 mm white translucent plastic sheet with a certain shape to it.

btw, I accidently posted this thread in the wrong category, can it be moved to Maxwell Render-section?

- Björn

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:47 pm
by Bubbaloo
Thinsss clears faster.

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 5:59 pm
by Mihai
Beside the speed difference there were some important improvements in thinSSS in the latest patch, especially when using higher roughness. The illumination has also been improved when using emitters, so I would definitely give it a try with thinSSS :)

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:39 pm
by bjorn.syse
Interesting, I will have to try the thinSSS solution!

Here's a material test using an emitter component in the same material as a white PE plastic. No SSS. Looks ok for this kind of situation I reckon,.


Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:49 pm
by kami
wow. that looks absolutely amazing!
how did you create this material?

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 10:58 pm
by tom
Yes, that'd be the most efficient solution unless you need to illuminate the wall as well. Although you can still map the backface, too.

Kami, it's easy. Just add an emitter layer above any of your materials and adjust its intensity initially or using Multilights.

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:50 pm
by bjorn.syse
Yes, it's still kind of efficient, however, not as flexible or realistic (in the way that we coult use the render to actually figure out how to place the lightsource behind it in real life),.

Kami, as tom said, I added an emitter component or layer to material, and then mapped this image (a .hdr file version) as the lightsource:

Image

This is a test using the same technique but with a Birch plywood front instead:

Image

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:02 pm
by tom
Great demonstration Bjorn, thanks!

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:09 pm
by bjorn.syse
Thanks, I tried to embed that before/after swf but the images are located outside the swf, and loaded dynamically. So for some reason it wouldn't work with this phpBB forum thing.. Perhaps that could be looked on ?

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:59 pm
by bjorn.syse
An update for the Birch plywood front version:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/114792/Forum/Ga ... after.html (Interactive flash emixer)

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:06 am
by zdeno
cool ! it looks great

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:17 am
by Fernando Tella
Yep! Very nice.

Re: White translucent material, for lamps (glass, plastic et

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:47 pm
by kami
nice indeed! have to try it as well ...